The Heavenly Sword & the Dragon Sabre – Chapter 19 – Part 6

Zhang Wuji started violently. *Eh? Why am I no longer cold?* When Yuanzhen's¹ Phantom Yin Finger² had first struck him, the cold had been beyond endurance. Yet now, after all this time, the chill had vanished without a trace. Since the age of ten, when the Xuanming Divine Palm's³ venom had seeped into his body, until he was seventeen and the poison was at last purged, seven years had passed in which every day and every night he fought the cold venom within him. Channelling his neili⁴ to ward off the cold had become as natural as breathing or blinking, requiring no conscious thought. Moreover, though his cultivation of the Nine Yang Divine Skill⁵ was not yet complete, the final great barrier still unbroken, the yang qi⁶ within him had already grown to its utmost flood. Before long, it had long since driven the yin venom clean away.

Only Cannot Tell⁷ spoke, “Ever since our Great Song fell to the Mongol horde, the Ming Order⁸ has been the court’s sworn enemy. Our Order has always taken it as its sacred duty to drive out the Tartars and restore the Han. It is only to be lamented that in recent years the Ming Order has been without a leader. The various masters of the Order, each vying for the position of Order Leader,⁹ tore one another apart in strife. Some washed their hands and retired into seclusion, while others broke away to found their own branches, declaring themselves Order Leaders. Once the Order’s discipline collapsed, the grudges with the renowned righteous factions only deepened. And so we have arrived at this pass. Monk Yuanzhen, is there a single false word in what I have said?”

Yuanzhen snorted. “No falsehood, no falsehood! You are at death’s door. Why should I lie?” As he spoke, he slowly rose to his feet and took a step forward.

Yang Xiao¹⁰ and the Five Unbound Adepts all cried out in alarm. Though each of them knew that Yuanzhen would be the first to recover, none had expected this man’s cultivation to be so profound. After taking Wei Yixiao’s¹¹ Cold Ice Palm¹² full on, he could still muster his qi and circulate his neili with such speed. His bearing was steady and composed. His left foot took another step forward, and his body did not sway in the slightest.

Yang Xiao said coldly, “The eminent disciple of the Divine Monk Kongjian¹³ is indeed no ordinary foe. But you have yet to answer my earlier question. Is there something sordid at the bottom of it all that you cannot bring yourself to say?”

Yuanzhen laughed aloud and took another step. “If you do not know the truth of the matter, you shall die with your eyes wide open. You ask how I came to know of Bright Peak’s secret passage, how I was able to pass through layer upon layer of natural defences and reach the summit without so much as a ghost suspecting. Very well. I shall tell you plainly. It was your Order Leader Yang Dingtian¹⁴ and his lady wife who brought me up themselves.”

Yang Xiao started inwardly and thought, Given his station, he would never stoop to a lie. But how could such a thing be?

Zhou Dian¹⁵ was already cursing: “Bullshit! Eighteen generations of your ancestors’ festering dog-fart! This secret passage is Bright Peak’s greatest secret, the sacred sanctum of our Order. Though Left Messenger Yang is a Bright Messenger and Brother Wei is a Guardian King, neither has ever set foot in it. Since time immemorial, only the Order Leader alone may walk this passage. How would Order Leader Yang bring an outsider like you through it?”

Yuanzhen sighed. He stood lost in thought for a long while, then said in a low, distant voice, “Since you will not rest until you have dug to the root of it, I shall tell you of a secret buried thirty-three years ago. In any case, none of you shall leave this mountain alive to reveal it. Ai! Zhou Dian, you are right. This passage is the sacred sanctum of the Ming Order. By ancient custom, only the Order Leader may enter it. To do otherwise is to break a rule of the Order that admits no pardon. Yet Lady Yang has been inside. Yang Dingtian violated the Order’s discipline and brought his wife into the secret passage in secret…” (Zhou Dian broke in with a curse: “Bullshit! Utter bullshit!” Peng Yingyu¹⁶ snapped, “Zhou Dian, stop your noise!”) “…Lady Yang then brought me into the secret passage of her own accord…” (Zhou Dian cursed again: “Damn you! Spit, spit! Lies and nonsense!”) “…I am not a member of the Ming Order, so my walking the secret passage cannot be counted a breach of the Order’s rules. Ai, even if I were a follower of the Ming Order, even if I had committed a grievous crime, what would I care?” His voice, as he recounted this old tale, carried a desolation that none had expected.

The Iron Crown Adept asked, “Why did Lady Yang bring you into the secret passage?”

Yuanzhen said, “That was a very long time ago. This old monk is now a man past seventy… affairs of my youth… very well. I shall tell you all of it. Do you gentlemen know who this old monk is? Lady Yang was my shimei.¹⁷ Before I took the tonsure, my secular surname was Cheng, my given name Kun, and my jianghu epithet was the Hunyuan Thunderbolt Hand!”

The words fell upon Yang Xiao and the rest like a thunderclap. In the bag, Zhang Wuji nearly cried out himself.

That night on Ice Fire Island,¹⁸ the story his sworn father had told him rose at once clear and vivid in his mind. How Cheng Kun, his shifu’s own shifu, had murdered his parents and wife and every member of his family. How he had slaughtered martial artists across the jianghu¹⁹ in a desperate bid to force Cheng Kun into the open. How his Seven Injury Fist had wounded the Divine Monk Kongjian, yet Cheng Kun had still broken his oath and refused to appear… Zhang Wuji suddenly understood, So even then, that villain Cheng Kun had already bowed before the Divine Monk Kongjian as his disciple. The Divine Monk Kongjian, hoping to resolve this tangle of hatred, willingly endured thirteen blows of the Seven Injury Fist from my sworn father. He never imagined that Cheng Kun would deceive even his own shifu, leaving the Divine Monk to die with his grievance unredressed.

He thought further, The reason my sworn father so often succumbed to his frenzied rages and slaughtered the innocent, the reason every faction and guild marched upon Wudang and drove my father and mother to their deaths, when one traced every catastrophe back to its source, the villain at the bottom of it all was this Cheng Kun, pulling strings behind the scenes. Fury blazed up in him in an instant, scorching and absolute. His whole body seemed aflame. The Universe One Qi Bag²⁰ was airtight. He had been trapped inside it for so long that the air had long grown stifling. Only the depth of his neigong,²¹ breathing in the slow, unbroken rhythm of the tortoise, had kept him alive, needing so little air that he had endured. Now his mind was suddenly thrown into turmoil. The Nine Yang zhenqi²² gathered in his dantian²³ lost its master and surged wildly in every direction. At once it was as though he stood inside a furnace. He could not suppress a loud, pained groan.

Zhou Dian barked, “Little brother, our lives hang by a thread. Every man of us is suffering beyond bearing. If you are a true man, show no weakness and make no sound.”

Zhang Wuji answered, “Yes!” At once he applied the qi-circulation method of the Nine Yang Manual to steady his mind and regulate his inner breath. Ordinarily, a single application would leave his heart as still as water and his spirit wandering beyond all things. Now the harder he pressed the technique, the worse his limbs and bones became, as though each major acupoint were simultaneously pierced by hundreds of red-hot needles.

Though he had practised the Nine Yang Manual for years and glimpsed the secrets of the highest martial arts under heaven, he had never received instruction from a master. He had fumbled in the dark on his own, and the Nine Yang zhenqi stored within him grew ever fuller without his knowing how to channel and direct it towards breaching the final barrier. Had nothing stirred it, all might have been well. But Yuanzhen’s Phantom Yin Finger was among the most venomous arts in martial arts. Once it had entered his body, it was like applying a match to a barrel of gunpowder. And as chance would have it, he was sealed inside the Universe One Qi Bag. The roused Nine Yang zhenqi, finding no outlet, surged back and crashed against him from within. In that brief span, he was passing through the most perilous crucible a cultivator of the Way may face in all his life. Life and death, success and ruin, hung upon a single thread. How were Zhou Dian and the others to know that he was not moaning at the point of death from the Phantom Yin Finger, but had stumbled, neither early nor late, upon precisely this moment into the great threshold where water and fire seek each other, where the dragon and the tiger meet?

He struggled against the scouring assault of the extreme-heat qi, but Yuanzhen’s words continued to reach his ears, each one distinct: “My shimei and I were old friends of the family. From childhood we were betrothed. Who could have guessed that Yang Dingtian was secretly in love with my shimei? When he became Order Leader of the Ming Order and his might shook the world, my shimei’s parents, well, they were a grasping pair, and my shimei herself was not steadfast. She married him. But she was not happy after the wedding. When she met with me, we needed a place of the utmost concealment. Yang Dingtian would deny my shimei nothing. She wished to see the secret passage. Though he knew it violated the Order’s rules and was loath to do it, her soft entreaties and her hard demands alike wore him down, until at last he brought her in. From that day forward, the secret passage of Bright Peak, the most sacred and solemn sanctuary the Ming Order had known for centuries, became the place where your Order Leader’s wife and I met in secret. Ha, ha, ha… I have walked that passage dozens of times, back and forth. Did you think coming up to Bright Peak again today would cost me any effort at all?”

Zhou Dian, Yang Xiao and the rest stood speechless. Zhou Dian managed a single syllable — “Bulls—” — and the rest of the curse died on his lips. Each man’s breast was so stuffed with rage it seemed about to burst. No insult to the Ming Order could have cut deeper than this. And the Order’s destruction this very day had been born of that selfsame secret passage. Though fury blazed in their eyes like fire, every one of them knew that Yuanzhen’s words could be no fabrication.

Yuanzhen went on: “What right have you to be angry? A fine marriage of mine was torn apart by Yang Dingtian while I still lived. She was plain and clearly my wife. Yet because Yang Dingtian became the big chief of the demonic cult, he simply seized my wife for his own. The enmity between me and the demonic cult is one that cannot share the same Heaven beneath it. On the day Yang Dingtian married my shimei, I went to offer congratulations. As I sat drinking the wedding wine, I swore a solemn oath in my heart: ‘So long as Cheng Kun draws a single breath, he shall kill Yang Dingtian. He shall wipe the demonic cult from the face of the earth.’ I made that oath over forty years ago. Today I see it accomplished at last. Ha! Cheng Kun’s heart’s desire is fulfilled. I may die content.”

Yang Xiao said icily, “Thank you for clearing up a great mystery in my mind. Order Leader Yang’s sudden and unexplained death, so it was your doing.”

Yuanzhen said grimly, “In those years, Yang Dingtian’s martial arts far surpassed mine. Not merely in those years. I fear that even now I may not equal what he was then…”

Zhou Dian broke in: “Which is why you could only harm Order Leader Yang by stealth. Either by poison, or by ambush, as you did this time.”

Yuanzhen sighed and shook his head. “No. My shimei was terrified that I would strike in secret. She warned me ceaselessly. She said that if Yang Dingtian were harmed by my hand, she would never forgive me. She said that our secret meetings already wronged her husband beyond measure, and that if I harboured further designs against his life, Heaven itself would not endure it. Yang Dingtian… ai… Yang Dingtian… he… he died by his own hand.”

Yang Xiao, Peng Yingyu and the rest all cried out in astonishment.

In Yuanzhen’s heart there lay a reservoir of bitterness against Yang Dingtian and the Ming Order, accumulated over decades. Today, with vengeance at last within reach, an indescribable satisfaction flooded through him. To savour this triumph to the full, he needed to pour it out before the highest-ranking men of the Ming Order, to make Yang Xiao, Wei Yixiao and the rest hear every detail before they died. Moreover, he and the seven masters of the Ming Order were all afflicted by venomous arts, their neili blocked, each man racing to force his meridians open first. Victory or defeat would be decided in the space of a breath. Yang Dingtian’s wife and his own secret meetings in the Ming Order’s sacred passage, once Yang Xiao and the others heard of it, they would regard it as an humiliation beyond bearing. In their fury, their neili would scatter in chaos, and he would sweep the field. And so he told the tale of Yang Dingtian’s death with every flourish, lingering over each detail, painting it in the most vivid colours he could muster.

He continued, “Had Yang Dingtian truly died beneath my palm or my finger, I might have spared your Ming Order…” His voice sank lower as he reached back through the decades. Slowly, he said, “That night, my shimei and I were meeting once more in the secret passage. Suddenly, we heard a sound of breathing from the left, a sound so deep and heavy it could not be human. This had never happened before. The passage was so secret that no outsider could ever have found its entrance, and none within the Ming Order would dare to enter unbidden. The two of us were startled. We crept over to look, and there sat Yang Dingtian in a small chamber, a sheet of sheepskin in his hand, his face as red as blood. When he saw us, he said, ‘You two. Very good. Very good. You have repaid me handsomely.’ After those words, his face suddenly turned iron-blue. But that blue vanished almost at once, and red flooded back. Blue and red, red and blue, three times in a single breath it changed. Left Messenger Yang, you know that art?”

Yang Xiao said, “That is our Order’s Great Shift of Heaven and Earth.²⁴”

Zhou Dian said, “Yang Xiao, you have mastered it too, haven’t you?”

Yang Xiao said, “Mastered is not a word I would dare use. In years past, Order Leader Yang honoured me with a rudimentary introduction to the art’s foundations. I have practised for over a decade, and reached only the second level. To go further was to feel my zhenqi trying to burst through the top of my skull. No matter what I did, I could not master it. That Order Leader Yang could change the colour of his face three times in a single breath means he had reached the fourth level. He once told me that among all the Order Leaders of the Ming Order through the ages, the Eighth Order Leader, Zhong, possessed the highest martial arts. It was said that he had cultivated the Great Shift of Heaven and Earth to the fifth level. But on the very day he succeeded, he suffered Qi Deviation²⁵ and died. Since then, no one has ever reached the fourth level.”

Footnotes

1. 圆真 – Yuánzhēn. Cheng Kun’s monastic name after taking vows at Shaolin Monastery. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

2. 幻阴指 – Huànyīn Zhǐ. Literally Phantom Yin Finger. A yin-energy finger technique of the Western Regions Shaolin lineage, capable of inflicting insidious cold venom that burrows into the victim’s meridians. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

3. 玄冥神掌 – Xuánmíng Shénzhǎng. Literally Xuanming Divine Palm. A devastating palm technique infused with extreme cold yin energy, created by the two Xuanming Elders. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

4. 内力 – nèilì. Internal force. The kinetic manifestation of qi cultivated through neigong. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

5. 九阳神功 – Jiǔyáng Shéngōng. Literally Nine Yang Divine Skill. A legendary internal cultivation method emphasising pure yang energy, derived from the Nine Yang Manual. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

6. 阳气 – yángqì. Yang qi. The warm, active principle of qi, opposed to yin qi. ↩

7. 说不得 – Shuōbùdé. Literally Cannot Tell. One of the Five Unbound Adepts, so named because his skills were beyond description. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

8. 明教 – Míng Jiào. The Ming Order, the Manichaean-inspired revolutionary cult whose teachings hold that light shall overcome darkness. Based at Bright Peak in the Kunlun Mountains. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

9. 教主 – jiàozhǔ. Order Leader. The supreme head of a religious or martial order. ↩

10. 杨逍 – Yáng Xiāo. The Bright Left Messenger of the Ming Order, one of its highest-ranking officers and Yang Dingtian’s successor as de facto leader. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

11. 韦一笑 – Wéi Yīxiào. The Green Winged Bat King, one of the Ming Order’s four Guardian Kings, renowned for his peerless qinggong. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

12. 寒冰绵掌 – Hánbīng Miánzhǎng. Literally Cold Ice Cotton Palm. A palm technique inflicting insidious cold venom that seeps into the victim’s meridians and freezes the neili. ↩

13. 空见 – Kōngjiàn. The Divine Monk Kongjian, foremost of Shaolin Monastery’s four Holy Monks, renowned for his invincible Vajra Indestructible Body. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

14. 阳顶天 – Yáng Dǐngtiān. The former Order Leader of the Ming Order, renowned for having cultivated the Great Shift of Heaven and Earth to the fourth level. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

15. 周颠 – Zhōu Diān. The Lunatic, one of the Five Unbound Adepts, so called for his wild and unpredictable behaviour. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

16. 彭莹玉 – Péng Yíngyù. The Peng the Monk, one of the Five Unbound Adepts. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

17. 师妹 – shīmèi. Female junior fellow disciple of the same shifu. Shī means teacher. Mèi means younger sister. ↩

18. 冰火岛 – Bīnghuǒ Dǎo. Ice Fire Island, the remote volcanic island in the northern seas where Xie Xun was stranded and where Zhang Wuji was born and raised for his first ten years. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

19. 江湖 – jiānghú. Literally rivers and lakes. The itinerant world beyond settled society and official reach. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

20. 乾坤一气袋 – Qiánkūn Yī Qì Dài. Literally Universe One Qi Bag. A strange weapon forged from rare silks, airtight and capable of trapping an opponent within. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

21. 内功 – nèigōng. Internal cultivation. The cultivation of qi through meditation and breathing exercises. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

22. 真气 – zhēnqì. True qi. Refined qi generated through internal cultivation. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

23. 丹田 – dāntián. The field of elixir, the body’s primary energy centre located below the navel. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

24. 乾坤大挪移 – Qiánkūn Dà Nuóyí. Literally the Great Shift of Heaven and Earth. The supreme secret art of the Ming Order, capable of redirecting force and reversing the flow of qi. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩

25. 走火入魔 – zǒuhuǒrùmó. Qi Deviation. A dangerous condition in which the practitioner’s qi spirals out of control, typically resulting in madness, paralysis, or death. See Wuxia Wiki. ↩